BOAA, DXE PROTEST (DEAD) GOAT FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

Security guard stands by during protest at the goat cooking demonstration. Photos by Michael Goldberg

Today I joined a group of animal activists in protesting a grotesque annual event held at the Ferry Building in San Francisco called the Goat Festival.

You can read an excellent report about the event by my wife Leslie Goldberg at her Vicious Vegan blog.

Here’s the beginning of her post:

BOAA, DXE PROTEST GOAT FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

By Leslie Goldberg

We were at the annual Goat Festival in San Francisco to cause a disruption Saturday. Yup, this morning I wasn’t pecking at my keyboard spouting off about animal rights or about the environment disaster caused by animal food consumption, but rather I took it to the streets with the animal rights groups DXE (Direct Action Everywhere) and BOAA (Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocacy).

The disruption was successful: By chanting (loudly) and holding up signs we managed to make it almost impossible to give a cooking goat sausage demonstration.

A small group of foodies had gathered under a tent in front of the Ferry Building to watch John Stewart-Streit show how to fry up the flesh of a goat and to also have some samples. Stewart-Streit owns a restaurant in Oakland that serves “house-butchered porcine delights.” The onlookers sat on folding chairs apparently unaware they were about to experience an animal rights protest up close and personal.

Security, on the other hand, was aware there was to be a disruption. There were about eight San Francisco police officers and private security guards standing around. The cops kept talking into their radios. The security officers seemed annoyed.

As the goat cooking demo got started and the chef started talking about the “pleasures” of goat consumption, one activist who had been sitting in the audience stood up, and holding a poster of a dog kissing a goat, faced the audience and explained (loudly) about how goats feel, suffer, experience joy and love their families just like us.